Finding spiritual growth while in your workplace

Lewis Richmond, SPECIAL TO THE EXAMINER

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, February 28, 1999

I spent the first 15 years of my adult life as a religious professional - first as a Christian seminarian, then as a Buddhist monk and meditation teacher - and the second 15 as a business executive and software entrepreneur. So spirituality in the workplace has always been of keen interest to me.

Getting into the job market for the first time when I was 35, fresh from the contemplative sounds of bells being struck and firewood being chopped, I was now surrounded by the ringing of telephones and the whine of the fax machine.

I'm happy to report that I survived the transition, and even prospered, but the contrast has remained vivid to me.

"Time is money," the saying goes, but in the religious life, time is not money; time is spirit, time is love. And these worlds of work and spirit were not always so separate. Not so long ago, people's work, family, community and spiritual lives were all connected, and a shoemaker in a small town could take pride in his handiwork on the feet of everyone who passed.

We moderns have learned to set aside any such expectation that our work might satisfy a deeper longing for meaning, wholeness, belonging and a sense of purpose.

But is that really how it has to be? Or is there a way that even our fast-paced, stressful workplaces can be places of spiritual growth? That was the question I kept asking.

I started with small things. When I walked to the copying machine, instead of filling my head with the details of my work, I focused my attention on my feet and my breath, as I was trained to do in the monastery. And since I work in front of a computer all day, once an hour I powered off the display screen and for one minute sat quietly in my chair, staring at the welcome gray of the blank screen and letting my breath relax into my hips and feet.

When I got angry at work (and who doesn't), I took that on as a kind of spiritual inquiry. "This is anger," I said to myself, naming my experience to create some space, some breathing room around the anger. What was the reason for this anger? Where was it leading me? What was it urging me to do?

Anger, along with its close cousins worry and fear, can function as wisdom in the making. I have salvaged many distressed business relationships using this approach - not to mention my own rattled state of mind.

And when the temptation arose to treat my co-workers, vendors and customers with the brusqueness and impersonality that masquerades as professionalism these days, I stopped myself and asked: "How can I speak with more generosity, more care? And aside from the words themselves, what about my tone of voice? My gestures and facial expression? What would it cost me or my business to take that extra time and patience?"

I believe that regardless of our rank and station at work, we are each the chief executive of our inner lives, and in each one of these spiritual sole proprietorships we can make a difference, at least for ourselves and, in time, for others as well.

Besides, the modern workplace is in the midst of dizzying change. The cubicle farms of the traditional corporate office are being replaced by telecommuting, flextime, contract employment, home offices and the Internet.

These changes are challenging traditional top-down models of management, and over time may let individuals work more like the artisans and craftspeople of old, with more control over their work environment and more ability to meld the age-old values of honesty, quality, compassion and care with the business values of profit and market share.

Perhaps the chance to find spiritual satisfaction in our work will become the new job entitlement of the 21st century. It may seem like pie in the sky today, but so did the five-day workweek or guaranteed health insurance to previous generations of workers. Isn't that why this vast, complex modern world of ours was created anyway: to enrich our lives and increase our happiness? And if not, why are we doing it?

In the realm of the spirit, the workplace may be the next frontier.

Lewis Richmond is founder and president of Forerunner Systems Inc., a Mill Valley software company. He is the author of "Work as a Spiritual Practice: A Practical Buddhist Approach To Inner Growth and Satisfaction on the Job." &lt;